God Bless Antibiotics and Panic at the Scale

[AvaFern 3,516]

So...for the God Bless Antibiotics portion of my post. I had a plastics procedure 7 weeks ago and I woke up last Monday with a ton more pain than I thought was normal, but there was no infection in the remaining open wound I have so my doctor and I weren't too concerned. I had a few fevers at night that always seemed to go away and I felt like I got hit by a truck a few days, but I seemed to get better. This weekend I started paying attention to the skin above the area where there was pain and I watched it go from a normal skin color to a bruised, reddish color, and then blistered, which I immediately recognized as cellulitis. I texted my doctor yesterday morning and he called me in a prescription for antibiotics, and I am already feeling better. I have to say of all the inventions in the world there is none that have brought me so much significant improvement in life as antibiotics. Everytime I take them I am thankful for the miraculous results they produce.

On the second note, panic at the scale, I'm gaining weight. Three weeks ago I was 127 and this morning I was 132. I haven't seen that number in weeks and given that I have been trying to be really careful with what I eat because I saw my weight creeping up, I am supremely frustrated that I continue to gain. Maybe some of the gain is from the huge amount of swelling caused by the infection, but not all of it. I have lost weight multiple times in the past. I get to a decent number and then almost immediately start gaining it back. I feel this complete and total loss of control when I can't manage my weight. I spent pretty much the entire time since post-op eating what I wanted in very small portions and annoyingly enough when I tried to lose another 10 pounds after getting to goal by actually following the Protein first diet I find myself gaining. I can lose weight on Chex Mix but gain on chicken? I'm certainly not gaining muscle because I couldn't do anything for the last few weeks because of plastics. The rational side of me is telling me I need to calm down, it's 5 pounds and I am still well within healthy range. The fat girl side of me is in a complete and total panic.

So...my Tuesday has been about antibiotics and a scale. Exciting.

[IcanMakeit 1,319]

@@AvaFern, I'm glad you contacted your doctor as soon as you suspected something was wrong. And I agree that antibiotics are indeed a boon to humankind. But don't you think it's likely that the two parts of your post are related? The weight gain could be Fluid retention caused by the inflammation.

If the weight gain persists for another week, then it will be time to react by cutting back on calories. Make sure you are drinking plenty of plain Water. Try not to panic. I know that's easy to say and hard to do, but it's counterproductive.

Edited to add: If you are not currently tracking your food intake, you might want to start now. That information is very helpful for weight loss and for maintenance.

[AvaFern 3,516]

@IcanMakeit Thank-you for your thoughts! I use MyFitnessPal everyday so I can see if I'm off track on calories and I haven't been. I just felt like a 5 pound gain in swelling seemed excessive and since I had recently changed my diet a lot to add in more Protein and less junk, which I still eat the same amount of calories- around 1200, it was frustrating to have gained. My back is currently oozing out Fluid, which is disgusting, but hopefully you're right and the Fluid retention is a big part of the problem.

I see my scale go up and I'm terrified I'm going to get fat again. Before the sleeve I never had a problem losing weight, but I would literally get to a low weight and almost immediately gain it all back. I'm so hypervigilant about it now because I know how hard it was to lose the last little bit of weight and I don't want to do that again. I also like being normal sized, so a few numbers up on the scale, and I really get stressed.

[IcanMakeit 1,319]

@@AvaFern, I think you are right to be hypervigilant. It is so easy to gain weight after reaching goal and so hard to lose the regained weight. Why walk that road if you don't have to? But in this case, I hope your panic is premature.